Traditions Evolve
By Judy (Blase) Woodruff
First-year campers learn the activities for their week at Summer Camp at their Monday night Unit Campfires. While there is still a tradition each evening throughout the week at Camp that has remained for 66 years, some of those traditions have evolved.
In the 1960s, Girls Season saw an evolution of the Tuesday Night Game. As a first-year camper in 1965, our unit played Scavenger Hunt on Tuesday night. It incorporated finding certain items on a duplicate list that each unit received, and at the sound of the bugle, campers would put their heads together and divide up the list according to what they thought they could find. The list included items like: 10 horse hairs, one cup of lake water, one toad, five live lightning bugs, 20 buttons, one doll, three corks, and so on. You get the general idea that they were items that could not be easily found. The three units that found the most items on their list received points toward the Golden Arrowhead plus a surprise for the winning team.
The next year, while the game was still Scavenger Hunt, the twist was to find things around Camp that didn’t belong. For instance, an old tire that was thrown into a creek many years ago, or old milk crates that had been left behind. It was called a Garbage Auction. Each unit was to collect trash around Camp, which was weighed, and then the unit received points for the amount of trash they collected. The points could be used to bid on a variety of items. Our unit won enough points to bid on homemade chocolate chip cookies made by the Sisters who volunteered that week. Other units might have bid on their counselors being hoppers for the week or getting an extra hour of horseback riding. It was a fun way of getting a few perks for the week, and a great way to get Camp cleaned up in the early years!
In year three, a new game was introduced called Counselor Hunt. The counselors were given a head start to find hiding places where they thought campers would not find. The three units that found the most counselors received points toward the Golden Arrowhead. Our unit found three counselors that year. As you can imagine, many counselors came away from the game with poison ivy and some scrapes and bruises since they were climbing trees and hiding alongside the road around the lake seeking spots that were very hard to reach.
In 1968, Counselor Hunt was again the game of choice for Tuesday night. After several mishaps and trips to the hospital, Counselor Hunt was discontinued.
My Counselor-in-Training (CIT) year, by chance I sat at meals in the Dining Hall with the unit of Lalande, so I helped them with the Tuesday Night Game, which returned to Scavenger Hunt. We didn’t have much luck with it that year. During my second week as a Certified Counselor-in-Training (CCIT), the Garbage Auction was once again held.
The game changed when I was a first-year counselor in 1970. It was Pioneer & Indians (please excuse the non-politically correct term), which consisted of two units of Indians and the rest of the units as Pioneers seeking to capture the item that was being transported from point (a) to point (b). As Indians, our unit had to take a canoe from the canoeing area to the stables. The other unit of Indians served as a decoy to transport a fake treasure in the opposite direction. It wasn’t easy to evade the Pioneers, but we succeeded.
Pioneer & Indians lasted until 1987, and thanks to Claire Hatch, Pati Egan, and Kim Caravella, Espionage was born. Similar to Pioneer & Indians, two units served as Secret Agents, with one unit having a decoy treasure and the other unit moving the actual treasure to the designated location.
Espionage gave way to Wilderness Fort, created by Gene Canavan. The “settlers” had to move supplies, like stockade logs, which were very awkward.
After Wilderness Fort, Chris Bretscher created Moonlight Gold Rush, which has been the popular game for the past several years.
What memories do you have playing the Tuesday Night Game during your time as a camper? Please share your stories with me at judy.woodruff@ondessonk.com.
No matter the year or the game played, campers have enthusiastically participated in Camp Ondessonk’s Tuesday Night Game! It’s part of the tradition that has continued to evolve since 1959!
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